Not Creeped Out Enough by: The Creeper Man by Dawn Kurtagich

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the-creeper-manWhen I first saw this book, I was so happy! Everything about it just screamed how perfect a book it is for me – from the eerie front cover, to the fantastically creepy blurb! I fell in love with the book before I even read it – and yeah, sort of before I even owned a copy.

I first came across this book on Ashleigh’s blog: A Frolic Through Fiction, where she posted a great review on this book.

I love horror films, as you might have heard me say – my favourites include The Conjuring, Insidious, The Woman In Black – I just love a good horror. But I haven’t actually read that many horror books. I’ve recently acquired a few though and The Creeper Man was amongst them. And I just couldn’t wait to read it.

Okay, so I didn’t realize that the book was formatted so uniquely – it is beautifully split into different quirky entries which include poems, notes, and these little paragraphs which have certain words highlighted in bold to spell a different sentence. So regarding how to book is put together, it is ingenious really, how everything fits to tell a story. The quality of the actual writing, I found wasn’t the best – I found that it relied a little too much on the use of big capitalised words to make a big statement, rather than being able to conjure tension and drama from description. Also, instead of fitting thoughts into the flow of the story, they were usually just stuck in a square bracket. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing – it might really appeal to some people, however, I just found that things like this effected the flow of the story, just a tiny bit.

Silla and her little sister, Nori, have escaped their abusive father and come to live with her Aunt Cathy (who is slightly mad) in her big crimson-red mansion in the middle of the woods. Right from the off, it reminded me of a couple of things:

  • Okay, so the trees are getting closer! This reminded me of Macbeth a little; “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Wood shall come against him.” I thought it was a really exciting idea to have the trees slowly closing in, so eerie and intriguing!
  • The Creeper man sort of reminded me of the concept of the monster in A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – again, both are great ideas.
  • And finally the setting – it reminded me of a film I watched a couple of months ago called Crimson Peak. I don’t really know why, it just did, haha!

Anyway, everything’s all fine – Silla and Nori are happy to live with Aunt Cath in her mansion, even if she is slightly deluded, and even if the house is a bit disgusting sometimes!

But lingering over them is a weird story that their Aunt tells them; about a man in the woods who will never let them leave…  Also, interwoven into Silla’s version of events is a tale from her Aunt’s childhood. There’s a lot going on!

So it’s all very fast-paced and interesting! The ending wasn’t anything I’d considered, to be honest, but it was satisfying, to say the least. So we’ve got a really promising start and an exciting ending – but the bit in the middle wasn’t the most enjoyable for me because not that much happened to be honest. And yeah, like I said in the title of the post – I just wasn’t creeped out enough!!

However, I enjoyed the book – it was unusual and gripping, and I’m glad I read it. I’d say it deserves four stars, just because I think it was lacking a little in some elements. But it was really good!

four star


Hope you enjoyed my review!

  • Have you read The Creeper Man?
  • Or have you read anything else by Dawn Kurtagich?
  • Is it something you’d like to read?

Thanks for reading!

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13 thoughts on “Not Creeped Out Enough by: The Creeper Man by Dawn Kurtagich

  1. Life of a Female Bibliophile says:

    This looks like a good book! I really liked your review and I’ve been looking for more horror genre books to add to my TBR. Since you said it wasn’t too creepy, I’m thinking I’ll actually be able to handle reading this book. I love horror movies, but somehow I have a hard time digesting horror novels (they can be a bit too scary for me!).

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